Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease which, if unregulated, can give rise to wild fluctuations in blood glucose levels. In order to maintain normal glucose levels, blood glucose must be monitored frequently throughout the day. We propose to design and develop a novel near-infrared skin port sensor (NIR-SPS) to allow for non- invasive monitoring of blood glucose. Currently, only invasive blood glucose monitors are commercially available, which requires a finger stick for each reading. Near-infrared (NIR) absorption spectroscopy is under development to non-invasively quantify blood glucose. Major obstacles to this approach include the skin optics which can alter the optical path due to uncertain variations in scattering and absorption properties of the skin both within and between ethnic races as well a errors due to variation in temperature and probe pressure. Our proposed NIR-SPS will eliminate the effect of skin optics by providing a skinless window, will provide a fixed geometric path length, and will minimize temperature and pressure variations. The novel NIR-SPS will be designed, developed and tested in vitro to optimize wavelength and pathlength. Pilot experiments will be done in a pig animal mode to assess optical performance with healing and monitor changes in glucose.